How Do We Get the IRS To Cough Up Those E-mails?

Op-ed by Jeremy Lott

The Internal Revenue Service's handling of the Lois Lerner scandal looks increasingly like a brazen cover up that the agency thinks it can get away with.

Lerner was head of the IRS's Exempt Organizations unit, which scrutinizes non-profits to determine charitable status. Tea party themed non-profits have alleged, with evidence that has been endorsed by the inspector general, that she gave them a politically-charged hassling.

Tea partiers and Republicans allege that Lerner took marching orders from the White House. Lerner herself has refused to shed light on this. She invoked her Fifth Amendment guarantee against self-incrimination before Congress and fell silent.

The IRS has proven about as cooperative as Lerner. The agency said it couldn't recover her emails because of a computer crash. Congress may not examine that hard drive to see if something can be salvaged because it was thrown out, reports Politico.

But hey, at least they recycled!

There's more. The collection arm of the Treasury is refusing to turn over the official emails of a half dozen of Lerner's colleagues. Again, same excuse. Their hard drives conveniently crashed, and there went the emails. Best of luck with your investigation.

Liberal journalist Dan Froomkin still calls this a "phony scandal" and Ezra Klein's Vox gets extra hack points for blaming it on the IRS's "underfunding."

With each new revelation of obstruction, it becomes that much harder maintain the Obi Wan Kenobe Jedi mind trick position. Typically, when someone insists, "There is nothing to see here. Move along," there is something to see there, and we should stay right there and take a closer look.

The whole IRS seems determined to thwart the oversight of Congress. This is constitutionally unacceptable behavior. How to deal with the defiance is a serious problem. It's not like the House can just hold the whole agency in contempt.

In National Journal, Ron Fournier suggested President Barack Obama appoint a special prosecutor to get to the bottom of it, since the president has insisted there was "not even a smidgeon of corruption" on the part of the White House.

It's a happy thought but the independent counsel law has long since expired. No sane president of either party will ever want to go there again after the Clinton circus of the 1990s.

One of the more creative ideas for getting at the emails came from Texas Republican Congressman Steve Stockman. He wrote a letter to the National Security Agency requesting all the metadata it had on Lerner, so Congress could see what calls and emails she was sending, when, and to whom, and then go ask those people to cough up the emails.

Most House Republicans will probably get behind a proposal by Ander Crenshaw, chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government. Crenshaw's proposal would bar the White House from having anything to do with tax exemption deliberations going forward and bar spending on things that the IRS has been dinged for recently - including throwing lavish conferences and giving bonuses to thousands of its own agents who still owe back taxes.

Most importantly, Crenshaw's proposal would reduce the overall IRS budget by $341 million, to $10.95 billion. So that's the size of the stick responsible Republicans are willing to wield - so far. Considering that the figure will undoubtedly be reduced in negotiations with the Democrat-controlled Senate, it doesn't seem nearly large enough.

As the IRS's nose grows longer with excuses, one suspects House Republicans will bid the figure up much higher. Obama requested over a billion dollars in new funding for the tax collectors. There is little downside for the House in going at least that far in the other direction.

That strategy would cut not just fat from the IRS, but muscle. If Republicans go there, don't be surprised to hear that a whole bunch of emails have been miraculously rediscovered.

@BobSmith After I posted a link of 64 Obama Lies (many more since that video was made) one guy inadvertently admitted I was right, Clinton sent Halliburton into Europe with a blank check first and then told me that Clinton sent Halliburton into Europe better than Bush sent them into Iraq.

There is only a dozen or two people with the intelligence to hold a decent conversation on here and you guys are all on my side. I feel like a school teacher talking to a brick wall.

People tell me 'Prove or Retract' Have you ever heard a better three word sentence saying, "I am not prepared for this conversation that I want into, just show me the paragraph I need so I don't have to take any initiative looking it up or actually do some reading or learning'

Indeed, Clinton gave Halliburton no-bid contracts - but where is the outrage?

"There is only a dozen or two people with the intelligence to hold a decent conversation on here and you guys are all on my side. I feel like a school teacher talking to a brick wall. "

When I joined this site, I used to be a left leaning moderate (Socially conservative however and always against the EPA/illegal immigration), but over 6 months I drifted steadily right due to the intelligence of the conservative posters on here and the failures and lies of Obama.

Conservatism and the right-wing posters on here make sense, liberalism does not.

I'm glad I figured that out.

"People tell me 'Prove or Retract' Have you ever heard a better three word sentence saying, "I am not prepared for this conversation that I want into, just show me the paragraph I need so I don't have to take any initiative looking it up or actually do some reading or learning'"

Indeed. That is quite annoying - it seems to have increased in frequency recently if anything.

They don't believe the IRS... they are shivering in their bones because they know deep down that Obama probably had something to do with all of this. That can't be discovered! Not their King… it would ruin him!

Yes, four years of Clinton lies and stalls. She is actually contemplating a run for the Presidency. Have we slipped that darn far that she would have a chance? Rush Limbaugh won't be running 'Operation Chaos' this time giving her tons of false votes to eliminate BO in the Whitehouse, her actual low information fools and Liar Lovers would be on their own this time.

@LEC WOW! The next time we have a Republican President who gets the IRS to check out only the liberal groups, let me know how you like it. TOTAL HYPOCRITE! Obama & these Democrats have proven that they are the party of hinky behavior but people like you just look the other way. You sure don't want them stopping your medicaid & food stamp payments do you.

Listen to the limp wristed liberals. Actually condoning criminal activity.....as long as that criminal activity is carried out by a Marxist like themselves. Lmao. And we wonder why the country is sliding down a rat hole of mediocrity?

@dances-weebles no one said it was! they say the message might prove who wanted the IRS to go after those who were against them, it is proof they want to see is there. You and I both know it is. do you think the IRS would buy it if you said your records were accidently lost and gone forever? wake up weebles, you are smarted then that. hey read this; Yes but to be truthful, the IRS, and the collection arm of the Treasury which is refusing to turn over the official emails of a half dozen of Lerner's colleagues, Lois Lerner, all have the same reason to cover up and hide the emails! Their reason is easy to see, they want their jobs, and they discovered that their jobs carried with it the way to become super rich. Money and job is one reason, the second is, they don't want to go to prison, and they will if the emails are seen by Congress. We need to go to a flat tax, and then we would not need the IRS! We have way too many ways people can fraud us out of money and the IRS is one of the top worse. The reason the Congress, Senate, and President does not want a flat tax is so they can raise, raise, raise taxes time and time again and wasted money, you have seen this a lot haven’t you? Let raise hell and demand a flat tax. The above is my idea on the subject.

@dances-weebles Weebles, I'm in a play now, it started on the night of the 12th, it will run a month, I am in the first, middle, and end of play but not a main part. I've enjoyed not having lines after lines to learn for a change. It is a Christian play, and we have been playing to a sold out house each night except the first. have a good day

Start sending people to federal prison. Compliance with the law is not optional and the American people are sick of being lied to. The IRS can not be allowed to be used as a political bludgeon. This is not the path our nation should go down.

@dances-weebles I'm seriously surprised on how quickly the right is jumping on this like it's a bad thing to have scrutiny over tax exempt status. All the while ignoring all the other groups also targeted. They love their fake persecution.

As long as honest people support and condone corruption in the government, both parties, we will have a corrupt government. Maybe this means there are insufficient honest people in the country to give a damn.

@AceLuby We don't need the corrupt IRS either. Look at all the excess baggage that would be cut from the gov't payroll. I don't know that Fair Tax would raise my taxes or give the rich a tax cut. If we pay as we go and certain things are "prebated" I don't see how it would unfairly tax anyone. It would cut out payroll taxes so all the young folks on here could quit griping about funding our medicare and SS since they apparently don't realize we still pay for those things and have for 40+ years..

@AceLuby As it stands, some of these "rich" you speak of aren't paying taxes. While the middle class pay almost 60 to 75% of their income. It's time for something different. If you want to keep going down this path of feudalism there won't be any revenue at all. There is a shadow economy brewing and it's Bitcoin and bartering is becoming the currency. Why not? The banks are dealing drugs and making tax free profits.

We need a Special Prosecutor and people need to go to jail. This is nothing more than a Criminal Conspiracy to hide crimes committed by people in the IRS and the Administration. Those involved need to be identified and prosecuted. The funding of the IRS needs to be significantly cut. No bonuses for anyone in that agency.

@dexter60 people 'run' businesses... the nation is 'run' as a business. of course the government 'runs' the nation. you certainly aren't capable of doing so... especially without any money. did you actually think before you hit the post button? if so, it doesn't show.

dances-weebles::You persist. Supposing you are thinking. But you do not understand the words.This regime wants us to believe The Government is a corporate entity, which is not its contract; it has shown itself to be no kind of business that exists in the real world, demonstrating that daily. They talk about deficits when there is no budget -- is that found in business; they say they control the economy or national employment, perhaps because this what they would like to be able to do, but show they can only meddle. I could go on for as many words there are in the 2.500 pages of ObamaCare and the 20,000 pages of regulations that have so far come out of it -- but I won't because enough is enough for you to get the message if you were not still wet behind the ears. You have posted a thoughtless response, after having plenty of time for reflection. That's all..

Amen! The reason the IRS won't cooperate is because they are getting rich off of us, did you hear about their bonuses, and the other reason is, they don't want to go to jail. We could close them down if we had a flat tax.

Backups? Those e-mails were stored on a server before the end users downloaded them, and if the mail server was running an IMAP (or more likely, MAPI) service, those e-mails were stored on the server until the users deleted them. I'll bet you, there's a backup of some -- if not all -- of those e-mails in a backup archive somewhere.

there's multiple backups the federal government backs up shit redundantly...ad for christ sake it's the IRS they know everything you've done for the last 25 years....this is the biggest load of bullshit since global warming

A sound move for a solution is to lock-down the IRS as a domestic terrorist organization, suspend all operations until the wrong-doers are brought out, prosecuted and incarcerated under RICO. We have been forced to support sedition and insurgency, internal and from abroad, beyond the point of conversation. We are definitely close to the collapse of the Republic, by people charged with it's care who have no grip reality grasping for a totalitarian authority. At their hands, un-interdicted, tax collection will come to be at the point of a gun even for those not marched to work each day.Their fantasy, not mine.If the war on citizens continues, to appear with horrendous finality in the streets, we will go through a recovery from this regime that will take longer than the Reconstruction from the war between the States which increase our vulnerability to an even more alien and lesser foreign powers by the posers in government. Americans will have no place to go even in their homeland as they are forced to rent their lives by the day.We know the enemy. No matter how many times they try to redefine us and themselves.

Shut down the meat-grinders before it comes to a matter of taking no prisoners.

I would charge each one of these people with corruption and lying to Congress, and Have impeachments proceedings to start after the Mid-term elections, then send them to Prison. The IRS has shown that we need to remove any authority from them to do anything but be a collection agency to gain taxes from private companies within the USA , and any other company that does business with us. remove the "income tax from the citizen and do away with it .

If Obama was behind this scandal, I hope that he is impeached. In fact, I would like to see ANYONE involved in this misuse of authority sitting in a prison cell for an unspecified amount of time. That is the only way to restore any remaining respect for the IRS.

People should not fear their government -- a government of the people, by the people and for [all] the people. Government should both fear and respect the will of the people.

What would happen if a police chief suddenly told people to target one segment of society (with no rationale in terms of suspect descriptions or criminal activity)? The bleeding hearts of the Left would very...very...loud...and they would be calling for the individuals behind it to lose their jobs. I wonder: Would these same Liberal continue to call it a "phony scandal" if a ranking member of the Obama Administration (or even Eric Holder or Obama) pressed the IRS to challenge or audit conservative groups?

We can conclude that Lois Lerner is hiding something. Is she protecting the president, Eric Holder or some other ranking member of the Obama Administration? I hope that we can, at least, get a list of all of the emails that were sent/received. This way, the "other end" (sender/recipient) emails can be reviewed .

IF a ranking member of the IRS (or the Obama Administration for that matter) misused their authority to target certain Americans for their political beliefs, then, yes, it would be a "misuse of authority."

It is akin to a teacher/police officer/employer who targets a person or group of people because of his/their race, religious faith, etc...

You want those e-mails start throwing people in jail for obstruction of justice. The Government don't have a problem throwing other citizen in jail for not giving something they want up to them. So fair is fair right start from the top and start putting official of the IRS in jail till the e-mails come to light. They will start singing like a parrot.

Unless there is an "or else" why would they feel the pressure to respond to any inquiry - start sending some of them to jail for contempt and see if the others will be willing to cover for the administration!

I couldn't agree more. Most IRS employees are ordinary working stiffs who absolutely will not lie. And some are itching to tell their story. The committee simply needs to find some likely to have knowledge, immunize them and ask some pertinent questions.

Abolish the IRS and the 16th Amendment, stop the self-imposed insanity.

Do you like the IRS playing these games with Congress?Do you like jumping through tax code hoops, do you like hiring an accountant, do you like worrying about an audit, do you like figuring out what you can legally invest your money in every year, do you like being manipulated by the tax code?

If your answers are yes do nothing, if they are no; start voting for people who pledge to abolish the IRS and the tax code, who will support the repeal of the 16th Amendment and who support the Fair Tax.